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As the
Maple Leafs
lurched through their longest slump of the lockout-shortened campaign this week, season ticket holders received a letter.

“Under the direction of our new General Manager &amp; Senior Vice-President of Hockey Operations, Dave Nonis, and in the first full year of Coach Randy Carlyle’s system, your Toronto Maple Leafs are positioned to return to the NHL playoffs . . . ”

Um, hold that triumphant thought. About 15 minutes into the second period of Saturday night’s home game against the Jets, it looked as though your Maple Leafs were positioned to never again return to the Winnipeg zone. Forget pondering Toronto’s first trip to the post-season since 2004. The fans at the Air Canada Centre would have been happy seeing the puck briefly removed from tap-in distance of the Toronto net.

At that point, Toronto had surrendered four unanswered goals in a gruesome stretch of slothfulness that saw them outworked and outsmarted and outshot.

“Bombarded,” is how Ben Scrivens said he felt during that tilted-ice deluge.

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Down 4-1, Toronto’s four-game losing streak was less than 25 minutes from becoming a five-game incitement of widespread hysteria throughout Leafs Nation. It was hard to believe that less than two weeks ago the Leafs were sitting pretty, just two points out of first place in the
Eastern Conference standings
. Suddenly, an outright loss had them in danger of being just two points clear of ninth.

Consider it a positive, then, that the Maple Leafs eventually snapped out of a second-period malaise that coach Randy Carlyle described as “mystifying.” Consider it a positive that they engineered a stirring comeback to force overtime before
they lost, 5-4, on Zach Bogosian’s goal in the 10th round of the shootout.
Yes, they’re on a five-game losing streak (in which they’ve managed to secure two of a possible 10 points). But consider it a positive that on Saturday they salvaged a point from what looked like a blowout, and that there’s still a three-point cushion separating sixth-place Toronto from the ninth-place Islanders.

Consider it a positive — and forward all the credit, if not the deposit on your playoff tickets, to Joffrey Lupul.

Lupul, a speeding bundle of pent-up energy playing for the first time in 25 games, scored on the first shot of his first shift. By the time the evening was over all he’d provided was half the Toronto goals and the entire reason for renewed hope that Toronto’s remaining 19 games won’t turn into the usual death march to the first tee.

“He’s a massive part of this team,” said defenceman Cody Franson. “And it’s not just on the ice — he’s a great leader. First game back in the saddle and he’s out there running guys over and scoring goals. He’s a guy you can feed off of.”

If not Lupul, who else would have injected the Leafs with a jolt of much-needed energy? They’re leading the NHL in fighting, but staged fisticuffs are routine drudgery these days. Leafs enforcer Colton Orr’s early-game pummelling of Winnipeg’s Chris Thorburn was a non-factor. Lupul’s old-fashioned bodycheck that felled Jets speedster Evander Kane in the final ticks of the first period got more post-game love from teammates than anyone’s slugfest.

Not that he’s a saviour on every front. Toronto’s five-game winless run has been marked by defensive porousness, to be sure; the Leafs have given up an average of four goals a game during the stretch.

But heading into Saturday night, it had been the first line of Tyler Bozak, Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk that had provided more than half of Toronto’s goals in the four losses — five of nine, to be precise. Aside from Clarke MacArthur, who’d racked up a goal and two assists in the previous quartet of games, no other Toronto forward had registered more than one point. The likes of Nikolai Kulemin and Leo Komarov had gone pointless.

Kulemin, at least, provided a timely goal in the comeback on Saturday night. Kessel got another one, too, his fourth in five games. But balanced scoring hasn’t been a forte of late. In one night, Lupul changed that. Carlyle and the rest of Leafs Nation can only hope he transforms the picture in other ways.

The franchise is salivating at the prospect of a playoff berth, and you’ll understand why. At the time of year when player salary cheques stop going out, ticket prices go way up. According to an invoice provided by one subscriber, gold seats that go for $184 during the regular season, for instance, are set to be jacked up to $322 for the theoretical first-round home games. That’s something like a 75 per cent increase, and that’s just the opening series. Should the improbable happen and the Leafs make the Stanley Cup final, Toronto’s NHL club plans on charging $552 for that $184 gold, nearly a three-fold boost.

For long stretches of Saturday night’s second period, it was laughable to think the Leafs are worth gas money, let alone that kind of money. During the comeback, during the best of Lupul’s fiery shifts, there was a buzz in the building that made it feel like the only place in the city worth being. There were none of the usual Leaf-directed boos, just occasional bursts of “Luuuuuuu!”

“Felt like a playoff game,” said Lupul.

Consider it a positive, indeed — post-season-worthy drama at no extra charge.

Correction: This column has been edited from a previous version that misstated the price of gold seats during the regular season as $189.

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